Cop: I'm afraid I will die
By Keith Moor
February 23, 2005
From:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12343439-26618,00.html

PETER Halloran fears he will die in the West African jail hellhole he has been thrown into.
The Victoria Police superintendent told the Herald Sun he could easily perish in Sierra Leone's notoriously violent and disease-ridden Pademba Rd prison.

Halloran revealed that an angry mob of prisoners came within seconds of attacking him while he was awaiting trial in the war-torn capital of Freetown.
"I am a white policeman in a foreign country accused of that most loathed of crimes - sexual assault of a child," he said. "Of course I will be a target in jail, and of course I might not get out alive."

Halloran said lies spread by Australian police officers helped convict him. Wife Neeltje yesterday vowed to stand by her husband.
"I have absolutely no doubt Peter is innocent and is simply a victim of a corrupt legal system," she said.
"I know my husband and there is no way he would do what he was accused of. He's a father of two daughters himself and would never do anything to harm a child."

Mrs Halloran said she had been in constant contact with her husband since he was first accused in June last year.
"The guilty verdict is devastating. I was so looking forward to having Peter home again," she said.
His two adult daughters also told the Herald Sun yesterday that they fully supported their father and knew he was innocent.

Premier Steve Bracks yesterday joined Victoria Police Association secretary Paul Mullett in expressing concern for Halloran's safety. Sen-Sgt Mullett and Mr Bracks both vowed to do all they could to ensure his appeal was heard quickly.

Halloran described Pademba Rd as being just like the horrifically primitive jail featured in Midnight Express.

Sierra Leone High Court Judge Samuel Ademusu this week convicted Halloran, 56, of indecently assaulting a teenage girl, Kadia Kabia, in June last year and jailed him for 18 months.
Halloran's lawyer, Nicholas Browne-Marke, plans an immediate appeal and will seek bail this week. The conviction came despite Kadia telling the court Halloran had not assaulted her or touched her in any way.

Halloran says he was convicted for political reasons. He accused corrupt elements in the Sierra Leone Government and police force of being out to discredit his employer through him.
Halloran took 12 months' leave from Victoria Police to work as commander of war crimes investigations at the UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone.

Speaking to the Herald Sun just before being jailed, Halloran said that false allegations made by police in Australia - and others - were responsible for him being thrown behind bars.
Had he been cleared, he intended seeking legal advice in Victoria about suing the alleged rumour-mongers.

Those Halloran accused include two high-ranking fellow Victoria Police officers and at least one Australian Federal Police agent.
He said his bail was revoked as a result of their spreading false allegations that he intended fleeing Sierra Leone to avoid the sex charges. He alleges the Victoria Police officers were also involved in a whispering campaign to blacken his name by falsely claiming to the media that he was corrupt.

"The information they were spreading got back to those prosecuting me and could help get me convicted of something I didn't do," he said before the verdict.
The allegations include that he had corrupt relationships with Melbourne criminals for many years and that two Victoria Police officers were on their way to West Africa to smuggle him out of the country before his trial.

There were also rumours he sexually assaulted a girl in Asia years ago and that he had to leave the National Crime Authority under a cloud.
Halloran, a former head of the Victoria Police homicide and vice squads, said he could prove the allegations were false.

Halloran claimed:
SIERRA Leone police officers goaded prisoners to harm him on his first day behind bars, but relatives of the alleged victim stepped in and saved him by assuring inmates he was innocent.
HE COULD have fled the country after being charged because his UN passport was never seized, but he chose to stay to try to clear his name.

VICTORIA Police, his employer for almost 40 years, offered virtually no support or welfare during his ordeal.

HIS accusers in Sierra Leone didn't carry out basic investigation procedures, such as forensic testing of bed sheets and clothing and getting a doctor to check the alleged victim, because doing so would confirm his innocence.

A SIERRA Leone police officer alleged in court that his main accuser, former Tasmanian police officer Mandy Cordwell, overruled a recommendation that the alleged victim be medically examined.

MS CORDWELL, 37, waged a concerted campaign to blacken his name after the pair fell out over various issues at the house they shared with two other war crimes investigators in Sierra Leone.

SIERRA Leone Attorney-General Frederick Carew ignored advice from the DPP's office and demanded the case be prosecuted and later insisted it continue - despite the prosecution recommending withdrawing because evidence was lacking - because he saw it as a chance to discredit the Special Court.

MR CAREW'S insistence on prosecuting could be linked to his friendship with former Sierra Leone Deputy Defence Minister Sam Hinga Norman, who has been charged by the Special Court with horrendous war crimes.

Halloran alleged several false claims were made about him by the senior Victoria Police officers and others. "I know for a fact the judge hearing my case was made aware of these allegations when he was assessing my character," he said.

"Of course the allegations would have affected his view on the likelihood of my doing what I was accused of doing."

Halloran 'most hated man in jail'
By Keith Moor
February 23, 2005
From:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12343443-26618,00.html

IMAGINE being the only white man in a jail in Africa.

And you are a policeman whose job it was to put some of your fellow prisoners behind bars.
You are in jail accused of that most loathed of crimes - sexual offences against a child. Finally, imagine being locked in a room with dozens of other prisoners and a police officer is goading those inmates to attack you.

That is the predicament Peter Halloran faced last year. He said he narrowly escaped injury during a tense confrontation. As police officers put him in the courthouse cells, they goaded the 60 or so other inmates to attack him.

"A police officer came to the grille door and was saying to the prisoners, `This fellow raped a little black girl, just a very small girl'," he said.
"He was trying to stir them up into giving me a beating - or worse.

"I am in there among these prisoners. They were lining up around me.
"It was a novelty having a white man in there in the first place, let alone one of the police officers guarding us were saying I had raped a young black girl.

"I could sense the danger starting to build. They had the numbers and were grouping together around me in a menacing way.
"The police officers were encouraging and inciting the prisoners to harm me."
It was only by luck that two relatives of the alleged victim were in the cells and they intervened.
They assured the prisoners Halloran was innocent and was being set up.
"That may have saved my life, and certainly saved me from a beating," he said.
The alleged victim's relatives will not be in jail to protect Halloran this time.
They were this week acquitted of the charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice in the Halloran case.